(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to headlamps and, in particular, to the structure of the headlamps.
(2) Prior Art
Prior art, such as German AS No. 1 605 914, teaches a headlamp unit intended to satisfy different requirements at the least possible production cost outlay. One of these requirements is a headlamp shape which as far as possible adapts itself to the aerodynamically designed front end of the bodywork, and the other requirement is the maintenance of good lighting performance.
Although the requirements imposed are satisfied by the proposed German structure of the headlamp unit, at the expense of relatively low manufacturing outlay, the known headlamp unit also exhibits serious drawbacks. These drawbacks reside in the fact that in order to adjust the beam of the headlamp, the entire headlamp unit, which has a relatively large installed volume, has to be pivoted. Consequently, correspondingly robustly designed attachment means and adjustor devices have to be provided on the bodywork and once again unwanted deviations on the part of the surface of the headlamp lens, from the surrounding bodywork contour, have to be accepted.
In order to avoid these drawbacks, it has been proposed for example in German published patent application No. 2 457 292, that a sealed headlamp unit should be fixed to the bodywork and the requisite adjustment of the beam of the headlamp performed by adjustment of an inner headlamp, arranged inside the headlamp housing and consisting of a partial reflector and an auxiliary diffuser lens attached thereto, which inner headlamp is adjustably mounted in the headlamp housing.
However, the basic design premise underlying a semisealed beam unit, namely that of low manufacturing cost, is departed from and once again the known design reverted to (this requiring a substantially larger manufacturing outlay) in which a supporting frame fixed to the bodywork carries the headlamp reflector in an adjustable relationship and is sealed at the front by the glass lens attached to it and at the rear by a housing likewise attached to it. These are some of the problems this invention overcomes.